Briton spends 5,000th day on death row

Maharaj has been on death row for 14 years

A London businessman is spending his 5,000th day on death row in Florida.

Krishna Maharaj, 61, was convicted in 1987 of shooting dead two Jamaicans - Duane Moo Young, 53, and his son Derrick, 23 - in a business feud over property interests.

The former fruit importer, who denies the killings, said the two men were victims of Miami's drugs underworld.

About 300 British politicians support his claim that he is innocent, but he is no closer to winning a retrial.

Judge arrested

Clive Stafford-Smith, Maharaj's lawyer, argued that the original defence team was woefully inadequate.

Four days into Maharaj's trial the judge was arrested on bribery charges relating to another case and replaced by a different judge, instead of restarting the trial.

Mr Stafford-Smith said there are seven witnesses who support Maharaj's alibi that he was 25 miles away from the murder scene.

But none of these people were called to trial by the original defence team.

Maharaj has also passed a lie detector test.

Governors' help

He was sentenced to death in 1987, but this was lifted at appeal in 1997, though an attempt to call a retrial failed.

His lawyers say his real hopes lie with pressure being applied on US officials from the British government.

Earlier this year, the Florida governor, Jeb Bush, the brother of the President, told BBC's Newsroom South East he would personally look into the case.

The governor of Illinois has become so concerned about miscarriages of justice he has put a moratorium on the death penalty in his state.

Krishna Maharaj is one of four British men currently on death row.